First trip: April 1985

Muscatine, Iowa

As Party Secretary of Zhengding county, Hebei province

Friendly Iowan people

Xi Jinping(center) at a picnic at the farm of Janet Rauch in 1985. (Photo source:China Daily)

BEIJING, Sept. 22  -- President Xi Jinping first visited the United Statesin 1985, not long after the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations in 1979. He went to Muscatine, an agricultural center in the US heartland, when he led a delegation to learn about farming technology. Xi showed wide interest in agricultural technologies, including pig breeding, local people recalled.